Chandigarh, Apr 21 (UNI) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday demanded the Congress government present a white paper to disclose how it used Rs 1,000 crore in public funds to upgrade hospital infrastructure in the State to fight the Covid-19 pandemic when nothing had been done on the ground.
Terming the Rs 1,000 crore spend on fighting Covid as a colossal scam, former minister Sikander Singh Maluka demanded a central probe into the claim by an impartial agency, saying even as thousands were dying due to the sheer apathy of the Congress government, the latter was making bogus claims. He said an urgent probe was needed to detect and punish those responsible for the multi-hundred crore scam as well as to put a lid on further corruption so that State money could be spent on patient welfare.
Asking how the government could even make this claim, Mr Sikander Maluka said “there is no visible change in the hospital infrastructure. Districts like Mohali and Ropar do not even have dedicated Covid hospitals. New ICU facilities have been created only in two district hospitals which is a pittance and a shame. There is a severe shortage of life saving injections like Toclizumab and Itolizumab besides Remedisvir. Patients are not getting access to ventilators with the government failing to increase its ventilator strength exponentially. Even ventilators provided by the central government were left unpacked for months because of lack of staff to operate them”.